Sky & Telescope

A walk at sunset instilled Norwegian artist Ed- vard Munch with strong emotions when the sky turned blood red. He put his feelings to can- vas many times, the most famous version in 1893 with The Scream, now one of the world’s most widely recognized works of art.The paint- ing’s background includes ships in the harbor and the skyline of Christiania (now Oslo) — clues that helped the authors determine when and where Munch became filled with anxiety. Courtesy National Gallery, Oslo. All works by Munch that appear in this article are © 2004 The Munch Museum/The Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society, New York. WHEN THE SKYRAN RED The Story Behind The Scream

By Donald W. Olson, Russell L. Doescher, and Marilynn S. Olson

The background of Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream piqued the interest of our intrepid astronomically-oriented historical sleuths. This iconic work of art has a rich history, and a sky-based explanation.

nly a few artworks can be considered icons hung above the blue-black fjord and the city. My friends went of popular culture. Everyone knows the enigmatic on, and I stood alone, trembling with anxiety. I felt a great, smile of the Mona Lisa, the farm couple with a unending scream piercing through nature. pitchfork in American Gothic, and the pose of the OThinker. Among these iconic works, The Scream, by Norwegian Munch never forgot that sky, and during his lifetime he wrote artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944), has uniquely become the many accounts of this memorable evening. Another version symbol of anxiety in our modern age. gives more details about the location and the remarkable colors: The Scream is of special interest to skygazers because the One evening I was walking out along a mountain road near lurid sky in the painting is the catalyst of the figure’s anxiety. Christiania [now Oslo] — together with two companions . . . the Munch’s own journals (portions of which we translated from Sun went down . . . it was as if a flaming sword of blood slashed Norwegian) make it clear that the spectacular twilight in The open the vault of heaven — the atmosphere turned to blood — Scream was inspired by an actual event: with glaring tongues of fire — the hills became deep blue — I was walking along the road with two friends — then the Sun the fjord shaded into cold blue — among the yellow and red set — all at once the sky became blood red — and I felt over- colors — that garish blood-red — on the road — and the railing come with melancholy. I stood still and leaned against the — my companions’ faces became yellow-white — I felt some- railing, dead tired — clouds like blood and tongues of fire thing like a great scream — and truly I heard a great scream.

Sky & Telescope February 2004 29 THIELSKA GALLERIET, STOCKHOLM PHOTO © MUNCH MUSEUM (ANDERSEN / DE JONG), OSLO Munch painted other works that were variations of the scene of The Scream. In 1892 he created Despair (left), followed a year later by another version with a hatless figure, and later by Anxiety (right).

Munch painted the most famous version of The Scream in peculiarity of northern Europe, and were frequently painted 1893 as part of The Frieze of Life,a group of works derived by artists from the north” and agrees that the event occurred from his personal experiences. Between 1892 and 1896 he cre- “probably in 1891” during “late autumn.” ated multiple variations of the scene with the titles Despair, At the other extreme, Thomas M. Messer argues in his 1973 The Scream, and Anxiety.In each painting the same spectacu- study of Munch that “nothing external gives a clue to the hor- lar twilight sky appears, with figures on a road, a prominent ror that impels the outcry” and observes that the “bandlike railing, a peninsula extending into the fjord, and a few build- arrangements that lend intensity and swirling motion to the ings representing Norway’s capital city of Christiania. These composition as a whole have often been identified as visualiza- details gave us hope that we might be able to answer specific tions of sound waves” but alternately could be “externaliza- questions: Can this precise location be found? Toward which tions of force and energy.” compass direction is the view shown in The Scream? When did These explanations didn’t seem adequate to us. Messer Munch and his two friends walk along the road? What did seems to imply that Munch’s experience was entirely internal Munch see in the sky? and psychological, yet Munch’s written accounts say that a blood-red sky preceded his melancholy and triggered the What Year and Season? scream. Moreover, Munch attached great importance to this In his 1972 monograph entirely devoted to The Scream,Rein- unusually spectacular twilight, but the sunsets as described by hold Heller states that unusually colorful sunsets are “visible in Heller would occur fairly often, perhaps every autumn. Oslo ...in the late months of autumn....As the sun then We began by searching astronomical and meteorological sets, it shines onto the clouds . . . and transforms them into records from the period just prior to January 22, 1892, looking stripes and tongues of intense reds and (without success) for the impressive yellows in the blue sky. The phenome- event that could have so dramatically non is an extremely impressive one, as In each painting the same affected Munch. But as we learned more unforgettable as it is indescribable.” about Munch, we realized that the orig- Aware that one of Munch’s prose ac- spectacular twilight sky inal experience with the twilight sky counts about the red sky was written on could have been much earlier. In fact, January 22, 1892, Heller judged that the appears, with figures on a road, many paintings created in the 1890s for original experience occurred shortly be- a prominent railing, a peninsula The Frieze of Life were inspired by fore, in the fall of 1891. events from years before, as recorded in A recent BBC documentary about The extending into the fjord, and a his diaries and notebooks. For example, Scream adopts the same explanation. A Munch’s beloved sister Sophie died in companion book to the program, The few buildings representing 1877. The artist depicted this tragic Private Life of a Masterpiece,by Monica scene in a series of works titled Death in Bohm-Duchen (2001), notes that “red Norway’s capital city of Christiania. the Sickroom in 1893 — fully 16 years and yellow wave-like clouds are a climatic afterward. We wondered whether this

30 February 2004 Sky & Telescope pattern of an autobiographical event painted much later held true for The Scream.We found support for this idea in a book by Arne Eggum, former chief curator of the Munch Museum, who disagrees with Heller and prefers the summer of 1886 as the probable date for Munch’s walk along the mountain road (Livsfrisen Fra Maleri Til Grafikk, 1990). There is other evidence suggesting that the Scream event oc- curred considerably earlier. During a stay in Nice in the winter of 1891–92, Munch discussed art with his friend Christian Skredsvig, who wrote:

For a long time he had wanted to paint the memory of a sun- set. Red as blood. No, it was coagulated blood. But no one else would perceive it the same way he did. They would think only about clouds. He talked himself sick of this sight that had gripped him with terror. With sadness, because the paltry re- sources of painting were not adequate. “He is striving after the impossible and has despair as his religion,” I thought, but I ad- vised him to paint it — and so he painted his remarkable “Scream.” In recalling his time spent in Nice, Munch himself explicitly mentioned the years of the original inspirations for three of the paintings in The Frieze of Life:

...the first Scream ...Kiss ...Melancholy....For these a number of rough sketches had already — in 1885–89 — been done in that I had written texts for them — more correctly said, these are illustrations of some memoirs from 1884....

The Bohemian Days of the 1880s Munch helped to date the origin of The Scream in another way in a letter to his friend Jens Thiis: “You don’t have to go so far in order to explain the genesis of The Frieze of Life — its ex- planation lies in the bohemian time itself.” Although Munch’s connection to the bohemian community of artists and writers is well documented for 1884, the bo- hemian days of his memory can plausibly originate in the sec- ond half of the previous year, when Munch was sharing a stu- dio in Christiania with six other young artists. It was in 1883 that Munch exhibited his paintings publicly for the first time at the Art and Industry Exhibition during the summer and the This woodcut of volcanic activity at Krakatoa appeared in the London Fall Exhibition in December. illustrated paper, The Graphic, on August 11, 1883. Later that month Moreover, Munch almost certainly attended the wildly con- the island blew itself apart in a cataclysmic explosion that sent dust troversial Christiania premiere of Henrik Ibsen’s play Ghosts and gases high into the atmosphere. Courtesy Donald Olson. on October 17, 1883. The play, which contrasted the honest, free life of the bohemian artists to the hypocritical conven- volcanic aerosols spread worldwide in the following months. tionality of Norwegian society, polarized the capital. Eggum A report issued by the Royal Society in London devoted notes that Munch painted a portrait of one of his friends in more than 300 pages to “Unusual Optical Phenomena of the the characteristic pose of the bohemian, Osvald, in the play. Atmosphere,” with a section collecting the “Descriptions of the But this eventful season for artists was also a lively time for Unusual Twilight Glows in Various Parts of the World, in skywatchers, and we now realized that science could explain 1883–4.” the blood-red sky in The Scream.The end of 1883 and the first We also checked newspapers and scientific journals from months of 1884 had the most spectacular twilights of the last this period and found hundreds of accounts from astonished 150 years! observers worldwide. The effects had reached New York by November 28, 1883, as reported in the New York Times: A Volcanic Solution The volcanic island of Krakatoa in Indonesia erupted in a cat- Soon after 5 o’clock the western horizon suddenly flamed into aclysmic explosion on August 27, 1883, sending dust and gases a brilliant scarlet, which crimsoned sky and clouds. People in high into the atmosphere. Magnificent fiery sunsets and sun- the streets were startled at the unwonted sight and gathered in rises resulted, first in the Southern Hemisphere, then near the little groups on all the corners to gaze into the west. Many equator, and eventually in northern latitudes, as the cloud of thought that a great fire was in progress....People were

Sky & Telescope February 2004 31 standing on their steps and gazing from their windows as well William Ascroft, an especially diligent English observer of as from the streets to wonder at the unusual sight. The clouds the twilights, concluded that the “finest occurred midwinter gradually deepened to a bloody red hue, and a sanguinary 1883–84, when some deepened into the richest crimson, and flush was on the sea.... were known as ‘Blood Afterglows.’” The English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, remembered this season and later used the image: Colored stripes and bands in the sky, like those later painted in The Scream,appeared to Pennsylvania residents, who Had the fierce ashes of some fiery peak Been hurl’d so high they ranged about the globe? ...witnessed a most beautiful and startling phenomenon in For day by day, thro’ many a blood-red eve . . . the eastern heavens....The sky that morning was fairly aglow The wrathful sunset glared. . . . with crimson and golden fires, when suddenly, to their great astonishment, an immense American flag, composed of the national colors, stood out in bold relief high in the heavens, continuing in view for a considerable length of time. (Hanover Spectator,December 19, 1883) In England, the journal Nature published a lengthy series of reports about the “remarkable sunsets” beginning in Decem- ber 1883. Newspapers printed dozens of letters with descrip- tions like the following: The sunset last evening at Eastbourne surpassed anything of the kind seen on the south coast. The sky changed from a pale orange to a blood red, and it seemed as if the sea itself were one mass of flames. (Times of London,November 29, 1883)

The Scream includes two land- marks from 19th-century Chris- tiania: the spire of Vor Frelser’s Above: Edvard Munch saw the blood-red twilight sky when he looked Church (left) and the dome of toward the southwest, over Hovedø island, from the lower viewpoint Trinity Church (below). (red dot) where the Ljabrochausséen road (now Mosseveien) wraps around the western side of the Ekeberg hill. In the painted versions of The Scream,Munch combined the railings along Ljabrochausséen with the view down to the harbor from an upper viewpoint on a rocky ledge (blue dot). This map from the 1882 and 1885 editions of Baedeker’s Norway and Sweden: Handbook for Travellers shows Vor Frelser’s Church and Trinity Church (outlined in red), north of where the Akershus peninsula juts into the fjord. Courtesy Donald Olson.

Below: This postcard view from the Ekeberg hill shows the Akershus peninsula and the harbor of Christiania at the turn of the 20th cen- tury. The masts of sailing vessels were a common sight in the harbor. DONALD OLSON RUSSELL DOESCHER Courtesy Donald Olson.

32 February 2004 Sky & Telescope But could Munch have seen the Kraka- opaque to sunlight passing through, and toa twilights at Christiania’s high north- At the end of November, less light refracts into the Earth’s shadow ern latitude? The reports collected by the (S&T: April 1993, page 107). Royal Society in London show that the astronomers Carl Fredrik The lunar eclipse of December 30, unusual twilight glows appeared in Nor- 1982, and the red twilights seen in that way from late November 1883 through Fearnley and Hans Geelmuyden year were similarly affected by the vol- the middle of February 1884. At the end cano El Chichón in Mexico (reported in of November, astronomers Carl Fredrik at Christiania Observatory the March and April 1983 issues). And Fearnley and Hans Geelmuyden at Chris- first noticed the “very intense veteran skywatchers may remember the tiania Observatory first noticed the “very lunar eclipse of December 30, 1963, intense red glow that amazed the obser- red glow that amazed darkened by aerosols from the eruption vers” and developed into a “red band.” of Mount Agung in Indonesia. The spectacle was clearly widely seen, as the observers” and developed Following the Krakatoa explosion, as- Christiania’s daily paper reported on No- tronomers likewise reported to Nature vember 30th: into a “red band.” that during the total lunar eclipse of Octo- ber 4, 1884, “the obscuration of the moon A strong light was seen yesterday and was carried to a degree far beyond any- today around five o’clock to the west of the city. People be- thing witnessed in the eclipses of recent times,” and “the densi- lieved it was a fire: but it was actually a red refraction in the ty and blackness of the shadow was far greater than any previ- hazy atmosphere after sunset. ous one that I had seen....” When Lunar Eclipses Go Dark Visiting Norway Krakatoa’s optical effects have not been equaled in the last 120 If volcanic aerosols from Krakatoa colored the skies when years, but observations after some recent volcanic eruptions Munch and his friends took their walk, then the date of this have given us an idea of what the skies must have been like in experience must have been between the end of November 1883–84. 1883 and the middle of February 1884, therefore near the win- Readers may recall the colorful twilights of 1991–92 and the ter solstice. Such a view of a Krakatoa sunset must have been very dark lunar eclipse on December 9–10, 1992, following the toward the southwest. eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Sky & Tele- We traveled to Oslo in May 2003 in part to examine docu- scope’s volcano expert, Stephen James O’Meara, has noted that ments from Munch’s bohemian days in the archives at the Munch when a lunar eclipse occurs soon after a major volcanic erup- Museum and the National Library. To determine the direction tion, the Moon can appear unusually dark. High concentra- of the view shown in The Scream,we also spent several days tions of volcanic aerosols make the Earth’s atmosphere more hiking in the hills near Oslo to find the precise location where Munch and his friends were walking when he saw the blood- Below: This 19th-century photograph proves that the Ljabrochausséen red sky. road was bordered by railings exactly like those in Munch’s artwork. We wanted to compare the topographic features of Oslo with This view, from a spot about 600 meters (1⁄3 mile) south of where Munch’s artwork. But since we were interested in the location Munch would have been, looks toward the northwest with the Aker- of Munch’s original experience, rather than how he reworked shus peninsula at the left, and with the spire of Vor Frelser’s Church the motif, we knew that one drawing in particular was the most and the dome of Trinity Church in the city skyline just above where important for this purpose. Art historians agree that this sketch the roadway turns in the distance. Photograph by Ole Tobias Olsen. (cataloged as T126 p. 10 R) is the initial study for the first ver- Courtesy Oslo City Museum. sion of Despair,which Munch called “the first Scream.” As

Sky & Telescope February 2004 33 Left: The roads of Oslo have changed much Akershus E18 since the turn of the 20th century, but the Peninsula woods of Ekeberg hill remain. The authors de- termined that Munch and his friends were walking along the road now called Mosseveien Mosseveien and he became overcome at the location of the ien red dot. The yellow dot notes the site of the gsve Kon historic marker, while the blue dot indicates the rocky overlook located a short hike from Valhallveien E6 the road. S&T diagram by Steven Simpson. Hovedø Island Ekeberg Hill Below: On a horseshoe bend of a road called Valhallveien, a historic marker commemorates E18 the inspiration for The Scream. However, this road did not exist in the 19th century.

Donald Olson and Russell Doescher overlook Hovedø island from the Ekeberg hill. Photograph by Marilynn Olson.

shown on page 35, this drawing contains specific details: a cliff on the left, a road with a railing turning left and descending beyond the cliff, and, in the fjord, an island with a prominent round hill. Ship masts extend above the horizon, showing that Munch’s viewpoint for the drawing had a rather low elevation, less than 30 meters (100 feet) above the water level. All of the later painted versions, including the most famous

Scream,have a much higher viewpoint, looking down to small RUSSELL DOESCHER and distant ships in the harbor below, with the city suggested on the right. walk “to the right for a few hundred paces to a rocky platform So we were actually searching for two locations — with the affording a fine view of the town and harbour.” This panora- lower location the more important one because the original ma was illustrated on dozens of postcards and lantern slides experience occurred there. During our visit in Oslo we found from that time. both the lower and upper viewing locations on the slopes of a Although the view toward the fjord is generally toward the 142-meter-high hill called the Ekeberg. west and southwest, this upper location The upper location is a viewpoint on cannot be the precise spot where Munch a rocky ledge 128 meters above the har- saw the red twilight and “leaned against bor. From this spot, we could see the By studying the perspective of the railing, dead tired.” The Baedeker Akershus peninsula extending into the the cliff and the distinctive maps, along with other early maps that fjord, as well as the spire of Vor Frelser’s we examined at the Oslo city museum, Church and the dome of Trinity round hill on Hovedø island, we make it clear that no road (and railing) Church, buildings Munch used to indi- reached this overlook. (About 140 meters cate the city skyline. Baedeker tourist could determine Munch’s position east of the rocky ledge, modern visitors guides from the late 19th century specif- will find a Scream historic marker and ically advised visitors to “ascend the with remarkable precision, metal railings on a horseshoe bend of a stony old road ...pass the farm of Eke- within a few meters. road called Valhallveien, but this horse- berg, and follow a field-road.” After five shoe bend did not exist in the 19th cen- minutes, one would leave the road and tury. The rocky ledge can still be

34 February 2004 Sky & Telescope Above: The authors used this drawing by Munch to find the artist’s position when he saw the blood-red twilight in the sky toward the southwest over Hovedø island. The sketch (Munch Museum registra- tion number T126 p. 10 R) shows Ljabrochausséen and is the progen- itor of the series of Despair, The Scream, and Anxiety.Courtesy Munch Museum, Oslo.

Top right: The authors determined that Munch was standing here when the volcanically tinted red sunset in the southwestern sky over- whelmed his senses. Today, metal and concrete guardrails line Mos- seveien, the road formerly called Ljabrochausséen. The view of the cliff and the island (partly hidden behind the concrete barriers) matches the artist’s drawing only from this spot. Photograph by Russell Doescher.

Bottom right: For a better depiction of what Munch saw at the fateful sunset, the authors climbed a few feet up the hillside, allowing them to see over the roof of a warehouse and show the profile of Hovedø island in the fjord. Photograph by Donald Olson. reached by hiking to the northwest slope of the hill, now rather Munch’s own words, along with our topographic results, overgrown by trees.) provide strong evidence that these blood-red afterglows are The lower viewpoint, the one employed for Munch’s first the connection between one of the world’s most famous volca- sketch, is on a road that wraps around the western slope of the noes and one of the world’s most famous paintings! Ekeberg hill. The street, now called Mosseveien, appears on the Artists and astronomers may look at the sky in different 19th-century maps with the name Ljabrochausséen. Art histo- ways, and few of us would perceive a volcanic sunset with the rian Frank Høifødt helped us find a 19th-century photograph same state of mind that Munch brought to it. But we, like showing Ljabrochausséen bordered by railings exactly like Munch, have experienced extraordinary sky phenomena and those drawn and painted by Munch. The road is only 15 me- associated them in memory with our situation and our lives. ters above the water level, and dockside cranes now extend We know that our lives are richer because we pay attention to above the horizon much as the ship masts do in Munch’s what the skies offer. In this way, we have an inside connection drawing. to one of the world’s most famous images.

On the Spot Don Olson and Russell Doescher teach in the physics depart- By studying the perspective of the cliff and the distinctive ment, and Marilynn Olson in the English department, at Texas round hill on Hovedø island, we could determine Munch’s po- State University (formerly called Southwest Texas State University). sition with remarkable precision, within a few meters. This The authors have previously written about the skies in three paintings viewpoint is 100 meters from the modern tunnel portals by Vincent van Gogh in articles that have appeared in Sky & Tele- where the E6 motorway passes through the Ekeberg hill, meas- scope: in October 1988, April 2001, and July 2003. ured in the direction toward the intersection where Mos- The authors are grateful for research assistance from Margaret Vaverek seveien joins with the E18 motorway. From this spot, Munch’s at Texas State University’s Alkek Library, the American-Scandinavian direction of view in the drawing was toward the southwest — Foundation, the staffs at the Oslo Bymuseum and the National Li- exactly where the Krakatoa twilights appeared in the winter of brary of Norway, and Lasse Jacobsen and Frank Høifødt at the Munch 1883–84. Museum in Oslo.

Sky & Telescope February 2004 35